bauwagen goes south

Fotogallery Fairview (Asset 2007)
Fotogalerie: Projectpictures 2008
Weekly reports of the volunteers (in German language)

The Bauwagen-goes-South-Project in Cape Town took place from 20. February until 19. May. In this project the two volunteers Melina Frese and Inka Mertes renewed the schoolyard of the Fairview Primary School in Grassy Park.

Facts and Information about Fairview Primary School, Grassy Park, Cape Town

Grassy Park is a coloured area of the Cape Flats in Cape Town. During the time of the Apartheid, black and coloured people have been forced to leave the “white areas” close to the city centre and were forced to move to the sandy, dry areas of the Cape Flats.

The coloured people are of Asian origin or one part of their parents is white and the other is black. In this area people mostly speak Afrikaans, which is similar to Dutch, their second language is English, which is also taught at the majority of primary schools.

Grassy Park is known for its culture and musician diversity, the famous Cap-Jazz and the combination of Jazz and Breakdance has parts of its origin in this area. The people in Grassy Park are very religious, most of them are Christians, but there is also a high percentage of Muslims. Although Religion-lessons are not part of the school-curriculum anymore prayers five times a day are still normal at school.

Fairview is a public primary school with pupils of grades 1-7. In one class there are between 40-60 pupils. At the moment there are about 1070 children. 80 percent of the pupils are Christians and 20 percent are Muslims.

The schoolyard consists of a few thousand m² sandy area, with just a few plants. Together with SEED, Fairview already started to build a 600 m² school garden, but in this garden there exists the need to do more. The children and their teachers have already started a sandy footpath, about 45 m long, leading through the garden.

Project report of the two volunteers Inka Mertes and Melina Frese

The Fairview Primary School has a close relationship to their neighbours of the League for the Blind (LOFOB). Therefore we worked with the school-kids in an environmental educational project and changed their school-garden into a blind-friendly sensuous garden. The main project was the creation of a scented trail with Braille signage and a rope-handrail. Part of the trail was a texture path for the sense of touch and two high beds with herbs for the senses of smell and taste. 

Walking along the scented trail on their own the blind children now are able to discover their senses and learn a lot about the different species of herbs, which we planted together with the kids of Fairview Primary.

The work in the garden was a lot of fun for us and the kids. Sometimes it was difficult for them to leave us and go back to their classroom! Because of the encouragement of the principal Mr de Wet, the teachers, especially Mrs Gallo and the maximum possible assistance of the housekeepers Mr Orgill, Mr Smith and Mr Brown the garden developed quickly as the centre of the school-life.

The learners and last but not least also the housekeepers discovered their affection for gardening. A new Garden-Committee will care for the garden after we left. They already have a plan for weeding, manuring, planting and harvesting. And of course they have a lot of new ideas to flower out the garden!

Besides the design and structuring of the garden we managed a lot of other „little“ projects at the schoolyard. For the little ones we had some sponsored money, which gave us the ability to create a little playground with see-saws and swings. The elder kids especially the girls were creative in inventing different kinds of hopscotches. We painted colourful butterflies, caterpillars and flowers on the paved ground.

The teachers told us their wish to have a possibility to teach outside in the garden, especially to prepare the kids theoretically before doing the practical work in the garden. Therefore we created an outdoor-classroom. In the corner bordering the garden we placed weather-proofed wooden benches and tables – overstretched by a shadow-net. Together with two artists from Guguletu the kids created a wonderful mural on the adjacent wall.

In addition to our garden-project as part of the Aachen-Cape Town partnership of Sustainable Livelihood we could help to start a school-partnership Fairview Primary School and School Am Lousberg in Aachen. The grade 3 and 4-kids started to write letters and send each other pictures and little gifts. We could make a video of the kids in their class and the Aacheners also send a video of their school. 

We look back to three wonderful and excited months in Cape Town. Alongside the project we got in contact and made friendship with a lot of very nice people and had a lot of experiences. The principal took us during his leisure time to the Cape of Good Hope and Mrs Gallo invited us to a typical African Dinner, she cooked especially for her German guests.

We thank everybody, who supported us, especially our sponsors from Misereor, Kindermissionswerk and InWent. Without their support the project would not have been possible.“

If you like to read more about the time of the two volunteers at Fairview Primary School, you can read their weeklies HERE! Unfortunately the weeklies are only in German!